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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22935958">Already Special</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Frangipanidownunder/pseuds/Frangipanidownunder'>Frangipanidownunder</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The X-Files</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/M, MSR, Season 8 Canon Divergent, what if fowley did not die</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 08:07:18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,389</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22935958</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Frangipanidownunder/pseuds/Frangipanidownunder</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>AU where Mulder isn't abducted but Diana returns (not dead) with an enticing new investigation during the Season 8 timeline.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Fox Mulder/Dana Scully</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>45</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Already Special</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>1</p>
<p>The light is so strong, magnetic, that he is physically pulled towards it. There are familiar faces smiling at him, it feels good to see them. They look happy, they look like they want him to be happy, all part of the same club. It would be only natural to step inside the circle. The light has a warmth to it, casting all doubts aside, bar one. Scully. Her hold over his heart is stronger than the compelling beam glowing before him. Skinner’s voice calling his name snaps his attention away for a second and by the time he turns around again, the light, the people, the urge has gone.</p>
<p>2</p>
<p>Scully’s news is a thunderbolt. That the impossible truth of their quest is revealed as a collection of growing cells in her uterus. It is both absurd and entirely right. The tears he cries with her are hard to quantify. Relief, happiness, fear, confusion. And profound love. They guard their secret like a precious pearl, hiding it away, only prising the clam shell open when they’re nestled together. His love for her, for this miracle is dramatic, overwhelming.</p>
<p>“I feel the same way,” she whispers to him, burrowed as she is in his embrace. They are tightly wound around each other. To hear her confession is utterly astonishing.</p>
<p>So, when Diana makes an appearance at the basement, it’s like the door to their secret world is blown off, leaving them exposed.</p>
<p>3</p>
<p>She slinks into the room with a half-apology and the promise of a new case. From his periphery, he sees Scully’s eyes narrowing, her arms pressing tighter across her chest. There is more than just her job to protect now. He listens to Diana, tries to recall the intelligent, proud, fierce woman she was all those years ago. She was a trailblazer in many ways. A woman in a man’s world, unapologetic, unafraid to stand out. Scully came a few years later and illuminated his life in a different way.</p>
<p>In the light of recent events, his view of Diana has focused to pinpoints of suspicion and intrigue. Why was she still here? To make amends? Her redemption was hardly impressive enough to grant an open audience with him. Yet there is something about her, the way she is standing before them, the way her eyes are almost pleading. Perhaps it speaks more to the absolute certainty of his place by Scully’s side, that he nods to the seat and she sits.</p>
<p>“There’s a case I’d like your input on,” she says, flicking her gaze to Scully every so often during her brief. Diana tells them about an organisation, Zeus Genetics, that, she claims, is involved with experiments on foetuses to create alien-human hybrids. Blood pulses in his ears. His automatic response to believe is subdued these days. Diana hasn’t quite picked up on the change. Scully gets up and leaves the office.</p>
<p>“Is everything okay between you two?” The way Diana says ‘you two’ makes his skin stipple. Is it that obvious?</p>
<p>He doesn’t answer her. “How do you think we can help you?”</p>
<p>“I’d like you to talk to someone. Someone I’m sure will convince more than I can.” She hooks her jacket over her shoulder, and adds a hopeful, “Fox.”</p>
<p>4</p>
<p>Someone turns out to be Duffy Haskell. Haskell claims his wife was murdered after giving birth to an alien baby. He has a grainy ultrasound and a wildly desperate look as his proof.</p>
<p>“Kath was a multiple abductee,” Diana says and looks at Scully a beat too long. Mulder watches Scully’s hands slide over her abdomen. “There are certain similarities to…events that you have first-hand knowledge of and I thought it pertinent to get your perspective.”</p>
<p>Scully looks at Duffy. “I’m sorry for your loss, Mr Haskell. But I’m not sure what more we can offer that Agent Fowley hasn’t already gone through with you.” The look that Scully shoots at Diana is scorching. “Mulder?” Scully nods for them to leave.</p>
<p>He’s inclined to go but there’s something catching in his throat and he moves his arm out, holding onto Scully’s jacket sleeve. “Wait,” he says. “Mr Haskell, perhaps you’d be so kind as to leave the ultrasound and other information with us for a while. So that we can go over it. I’m sure you’ve provided Agent Fowley with your contact details.”</p>
<p>Haskell nods, leaves.</p>
<p>“There’s another group of people I’d like you to meet,” Diana says. “I’ll meet you in the car park.”</p>
<p>“Are you okay with this, Scully,” Mulder asks after Diana walks away. “Because if you’re not, just say the word.”</p>
<p>“I’m fine. What does she want, Mulder? I don’t understand her motivation. And I still don’t…”</p>
<p>“I know,” he says. “Neither do I.”</p>
<p> 5</p>
<p>At a table sits a number of people. A woman with red hair and kind eyes introduces herself as Lizzie Gill. A scientist, Lizzie explains she’s been working on human-alien cloning.</p>
<p>“What do you mean?” Scully asks. “How can that be?”</p>
<p>“Our efforts were funded by the Government. Most were unsuccessful, but recently, there have been live births.”</p>
<p>Scully rubs the bridge of her nose and blows out an exasperated sigh.</p>
<p>“Why are we here?” Mulder asks Diana.</p>
<p>Diana stands, pulls out a file from a drawer. Holds the Manila folder up. “This is a contact list of all the women who have been, and who will be, used as hosts for the experiment. They are all patients of the same pair of doctors. Lev and Parenti.”</p>
<p>There’s a sharp silence in the room. Lizzie Gill spreads her fingers flat on the desk. Scully presses a finger under her nose.</p>
<p>“I know about the IVF,” Diana says and Scully scrapes her chair back across the floor. The door slams behind her.</p>
<p>Mulder inhales, grasping for a reason not to follow her. “What the fuck is going on, Diana?” His fist smashes the desk and the file flips up, scattering papers across the surface and floor.</p>
<p>Lizzie swallows, bends to collect them. “Your partner’s name is on this list.”</p>
<p>“Fox…”</p>
<p>He swings to face Diana. “What have you done?” He begins to pace, tugging at the buttons on his cuffs, rolling the sleeves up.</p>
<p>“Fox,” she starts again, casting her eyes over to Lizzie, then finally back to Mulder, when he stops by the door. “Fox, please. It’s more about what I’ve been trying to undo.”</p>
<p>Lizzie nods kindly at him. “Your partner might do well to hear this.”</p>
<p>He can’t put Scully through any more trauma. Her emotional wellbeing is paramount. He’ll filter what he needs to. He’s about to sit in a chair when the door opens.</p>
<p>Chin up, eyes blazing, Scully speaks. “Tell me everything.”</p>
<p>A flash of guilty relief crosses Diana’s face. Her account of CSM’s interference with donations supplied from innocent husbands; of cloning with alien DNA from the Roswell crash; of speculation about an alien invasion are sobering, repulsive.</p>
<p> Later, curled together in her bed, she whispers, “those other women, Mulder. The ones whose IVF treatments worked, what will happen to them?”</p>
<p>His fingers traces around her navel, flattens against the soft skin of her belly. He wants to tell her they’re not important, that he doesn’t care. But he can’t. He brushes a kiss against her cheek, tasting the briny track of her tears. “I don’t know.” She wriggles closer to him so that her head is under his chin, body half across his. “But I do know our baby will be safe.”</p>
<p>“Because Agent Fowley told us about Parenti?” She sniffs and lets out a bitter chuckle.</p>
<p>But it’s not that. It’s something resonant in his bones. A humming of certainty. A knowledge borne of some instinctual place.</p>
<p>Diana and Lizzie did not know about this pregnancy, its natural origins. “If you continue the IVF, you must find a new doctor. We can help,” Diana had said and there was something about the solemn tone in her voice that made him feel that she could be trusted.</p>
<p>“Nothing will happen to our baby, Scully. I’ll make sure of that.” He kisses her hair. “He’s gonna be fine.”</p>
<p>“He?” A tiny murmur of surprise. “How do you know that?”</p>
<p>“I just know.”</p>
<p>“He’s going to be special,” she says after a moment.</p>
<p>“He already is.”</p>
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